It was March 2020 and a killervirus swept the planet, resulting in worldwide lockdowns. Social interactions became limited. Very limited. Bars, clubs, restaurants closed and parties became virtually non-existent. Tough times for extravert people. Like me.
So I turned to social media to stay in touch with friends, colleagues, family members and even neighbours. I was lucky to have met a lovely lady just before the lockdown who agreed we would only hug eachother and no one else.
Dozens of people I was in contact with I met one by one: sharing coffee, fears and thoughts while sitting - 6 feet apart - on a park bench or in my garden. Others I saw only via videocalls or contacted via texting on different applications.
I never realized with how many people I only stayed in touch via Messenger or Instagram Direct Message. Until the Facebook algorithm decided to lock me out of my accounts. I received a ban 'for three days' for supposedly publishing a 'sexually explicit' post. Which I didn't. Or perhaps it was because I wrote about a burlesque show. The flyer for that show contains some semi-nudity. Other times the Facebook A.I. told me that my account was disabled because someone complained about my posts but my favourite reason Facebook gave me was that my account was discontinued 'for reasons unknown'. That makes it all clear, doesn't it?
For my daily portion of social media I turned to Twitter where I became more active than I was ever before. I found a new way to challenge my skills as a writer (click) and made a couple of hundred new online friends. Good times!
I did a little research and soon found out I'm not the only one who lost access to his account without much hope of retrieving it.
My guess is that the Facebook Artificial Intelligence went rogue. Explaining the outage of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp for six hours, beginning of October 2021. That several Facebook employees could not leave or enter several rooms at their headquarters during that time because someone decided it was a good idea to connect the electronic doors to their own Facebook-servers had me in stitches and reminded me of Dick Maas' movie 'De Lift'. Done again in English as 'Down':
The most likely scenario is that someone holding a grudge reported my Facebook account. The A.I. automatically suspended that account 'pending an investigation'. There are no people at Facebook momentarily actually investigating claims and after 30 days the acount is disabled without the right to appeal.
Why anyone in their right mind would report a Facebook account that did not actually break the Facebook rules? No idea. The person could be an angry and childish ex, simply bat shit crazy, mentally very confused of really, really bored. Or a combination thereof. Your guess is as good as mine.
All my posts, my photos, my reactions, my Messenger messages, contact data, acces to my mother's 'In Memoriam' page, group memberships, likes...gone. Only the Facebook A.I. has all that data now.
Anyways: I'm back on Facebook as well as Instagram with new accounts. Ready to connect with the world again. If you missed me on those social media platforms, please feel free to add me again.
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